Gwaii Haanas legacy totem pole to include earthquake deity

Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun01.01.2013

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.
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---- Photos by J. Shafto, courtesy of Parks Canada

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.
----
----
---- Photos by J. Shafto, courtesy of Parks Canada

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.
----
---- His assistant Tyler York is visible in one photo.
----
---- Photos by J. Shafto, courtesy of Parks Canada

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.
Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.
----
----
---- Photos by J. Shafto, courtesy of Parks Canada

Jaalen Edenshaw has been commissioned to carve a Haida monumental pole for the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, a sea floor to mountain top conservation area. In response to the Oct. 27 earkquake in the region, he has included a Haida deity responsible for earthquakes in his design.

The first totem pole to be erected in the Gwaii Haanas region in 130 years will now include a figure of the first nations deity responsible for earthquakes.

Residents of Haida Gwaii were reminded of the power of Sacred-One-Standing-And-Moving by a massive quake that shook the islands on Oct. 27 and sent locals heading for high ground fearing a tsunami, according to head carver Jaalen Edenshaw.

“Sacred-One-Standing-And-Moving supports Haida Gwaii on a pole from underneath, so when he moves, everything moves,” said Edenshaw. “I wanted to include Sacred-One-Standing-and-Moving to acknowledge his power after he shifted and shook Haida Gwaii.”

The Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve was hit hard by the powerful 7.8 earthquake, which cut off water to the famous thermal springs on Hot Spring Island in the park’s marine conservation area.

“The hot springs were taken away by the earthquake, and it was an important place to the Haida,” said Edenshaw. “Maybe I am hoping he will give the hot springs back to us.”

Edenshaw and his assistant, Tyler York, are carving a 42-foot length of cedar this winter and spring for a Haida monumental pole that is scheduled to be erected on Aug. 15. The pole, harvested from Graham Island, will have a permanent home on an island not far from the hot springs, he said.

The figure for Sacred-One-Standing-And-Moving will wear the skin of a supernatural sea-wolf called a Wasgo, clad just as he is in the ancient Haida stories that Edenshaw remembers.

The Sacred One killed the Wasgo and wore his skin in order to increase his powers and enable him to avenge the disappearance of his brothers, Edenshaw said. He used the Wasgo skin’s powers to win a contest between supernatural beings competing for the job of holding up Haida Gwaii with the pillar of the heavens, wresting it from the control of the Eagle clan and a supernatural clan member whose amorous trysts subjected the islands to frequent earthquakes.

Edenshaw had already started to carve the pole based on the design that won him the carving contract, but after the quake he pitched a new design — altered to include a representation of Sacred-One-Standing-And-Moving — to the Archipelago Management Board, the joint committee of the Haida and Canadian governments that oversees Gwaii Haanas.

The carving — which the Haida call a monumental or legacy pole — is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the agreement between the Haida Nation and Canada to jointly protect and manage Gwaii Haanas. The pole’s figures tell much of the modern history of Gwaii Haanas and the people who are engaged in protecting it.

At the bottom of the pole is a figure of a grizzly bear holding a sculpin, while at the top is an eagle. The combination represents the agreement between the Haida and Canada to protect Gwaii Haanas from “sea floor to mountain top,” said Edenshaw.

“Five human figures represent the 1985 Lyell Island blockade, the protest that stopped logging and was a catalyst for the creation of Gwaii Haanas as a national conservation area,” he said.

A raven is present to balance the eagle figure, which together represent the two founding clans of the Haida people.

Above the raven is Sacred-One-Standing-And-Moving, draped in a Wasgo skin. He replaces sea grizzly, which was part of the original design.

Another group of three figures represent the Haida Watchmen who protect the land, Parks Canada, archeologists and others who care for the site.

A human face tucked in the ear of the Wasgo represents the viewer, any visitor from afar who comes to see the pole.

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